Chris Darden
United States
Lake Saint Louis
Missouri
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Have they gone insane? There really isn't a lot in there. I love the game and all, but that's just nuts!
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Claudio Campuzano
United States
Portland
Oregon
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While I get the stickershock, another way to look at it is you'll probably pay $20 through one of the online retailers. That's $10 an expansion. And you're not really paying for the bits. You are paying for two well-developed, well-reviewed, game-changing expansions that make a great game all the more interesting. When you consider that the only purchasers are going to be a subset of purchasers of the first game (excluding those that got the expansion in the oringal essen sets from winsome), we're talking about a very small run. Small runs = High per unit costs.
All that said, I haven't bought it yet (and am wondering if I need to since I have narrow guage from the essen set), so who am I to talk...
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Josh P.
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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You were able to get it for $30 including shipping from Winsome back in August. Pretty sweet deal.
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Claudio Campuzano
United States
Portland
Oregon
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joshp wrote: You were able to get it for $30 including shipping from Winsome back in August. Pretty sweet deal.
Both expansions? Sold separately from the respective sets in which they were originally included? Really?
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Josh P.
United States
Tucson
Arizona
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No, it was the Queen packaging. John got some sets for GenCon, but made them available direct to those that asked for one. He charged the MSRP, but shipped the game out without an extra charge. Being able to get the expansions before they were in my FLGS and shipped for free made it an instant buy for me.
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Claudio Campuzano
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Too bad I missed it. I'm certain to tuck it into the next order, though. I'll be trying out narrow guage in the meantime. And the rest of the essen set, which, despite my best intentions remains unplayed. Damn this hobby with all its good games!
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$30 is still expensive considering that the components do not cost more than $3-$4. Wait and you can buy it next year for half that price.
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Claudio Campuzano
United States
Portland
Oregon
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GeoMan wrote: $30 is still expensive considering that the components do not cost more than $3-$4. Wait and you can buy it next year for half that price.
I'm not in the business, but my guess is $30 MSRP is not monopolistic pricing, but rather just about gets them economic profits (i.e. a decent IRR). Given that most online retailers sell it for about 30% off MSRP, you've got to figure the wholesale price is somewhere around $15 per unit. Given what has got to be a pretty small print run - I'm guessing about 1000 considering there are fewer than 2000 BGG users owning the base game and not everyone buys expansions and unsold inventory is THE margin killer - their fixed costs (i.e. design, prepress, etc.) have to add a considerable chunk to the per unit. Not to mention the license fee and/or royalties. Then marketing. Then there is indirect and overhead (i.e. their rent, salaries of staff, etc.). Figure that at least one person worked full time on this for at least a month (and that is probably an underestimate given negotiating with winsome, working on the art, etc.), at a $60,000 salary plus benefits, we're talking $7500 right off the bat. That is $7.50 per unit if they only run 1000. The license is probably a couple of grand, too.
So, the fact is, components are probably the cheapest part of making a project like this go. I guess we're just in a hobby that doesn't have great economies of scale - particularly for expansions on great but rather heavy games.
I'd be curious if someone who actually knew the industry could comment.
So in the meantime: buy it, enjoy it, forget the cost. Just think about the cost per hour of fun.
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Costas
Canada
London
Ontario
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claudio212 wrote: Just think about the cost per hour of fun.
And fun it is - if you like Chicago Express, these expansions add a lot the gameplay. Even though we're talking about a relative few physical components, they sure pack a punch!
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David Hoffman
United States
Briarcliff Manor
New York
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I paid $18.00 and change for my copy, and did it as part of a big order to avoid shipping charges.
Totally worth it, IMO.
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Chris Williams
United States
Lebanon
Missouri
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It always amazes me that people think they are paying for bits, when they are really paying for knowledge... Buck up and play!
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Chris Darden
United States
Lake Saint Louis
Missouri
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$20 I'd pay. But there really isn't enough in here to justify more.
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guy Steuperaert
Belgium
Desselgem
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I been on the lookout for the basegame since a while.
I found a shop who sold the base game in essen for 25 euro and 17 for expansion, if i bought both i only had to pay 35. that was a rather nice deal imo.
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Darren Dew
United States
Savannah
Georgia
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GeoMan wrote: $30 is still expensive considering that the components do not cost more than $3-$4. Wait and you can buy it next year for half that price.
Unlikely. And unfair. War in the Pacific is really just a couple hundred sheets of paper....
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J C Lawrence
United States
Campbell
California
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I have a few spare copies of the Queen expansion that I'll happily sell for $20 + S&H from Californian.
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Jesper Johansson
Sweden
Vittinge
Yay! An expensive feature that nobody will ever see. Weeee!
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Amazon.de has this for approximately 8 euro right now, and it includes rules in multiple languages. They usually have reasonable shipping costs within EU, but it's probably not worth it if you are in the US.
http://www.amazon.de/Queen-Games-60528-Chicago-Erweiterung/d...
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Francis K. Lalumiere
Canada
Brossard
Quebec
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mizzou95 wrote: It always amazes me that people think they are paying for bits, when they are really paying for knowledge... Buck up and play!
Sure, but stuff like that really depends on perceived value.
I might write the best novel ever written, and it might take me 20 years to complete it, but if it's only 100 pages, nobody will want to play $50 for it. Even though it might be my life's work.
So yes, I think the expansion is good, but yes, I think it's very expensive for the perceived value of the package.
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